Justice
and Mercy in the Old Testament: Part 2
Stephen
Terry
Commentary
for the July 23, 2016 Sabbath School Lesson
“You are the salt of the
earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is
no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”
“You are the light of the world. A town built
on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a
bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the
house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see
your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:13-16, NIV
When an evangelist comes to town, he is usually preceded
by an advertising blitz directed at the zip codes where he will be speaking. A
meeting hall is secured or a tent erected in order to accommodate the
anticipated crowds who will attend the meetings. Music and special features are
arranged and scheduled. If seating is not already part of the venue, chairs are
set up. Ushers are rehearsed in how to guide people to their seats and how to
take up the offering that will defray some of the expenses for the series of
meetings. Special prayer sessions are arranged requesting God’s blessing on the
meetings that they will be fruitful and those attending will be blessed. But
when all is said and done and the evangelist stands on the cusp of that first meeting
in the final hour before the doors are opened, they do not know if anyone will
show up.
What if all the preparations are fruitless? Were the
handbills catchy enough to grab people’s attention? Will the Gospel find a
welcome reception in this town? But over time through the experience of many
meetings, the anxiety subsides somewhat. The seasoned evangelist learns that in
the end, it is not the handbills, the program, or even the speaker, but it is
the Holy Spirit that brings the spiritually thirsty to the meetings. Their
thirst will be sated, not by the glibness of the speaker, but by the amazing
love and compassion of Jesus. Night after night as they hear His words, hearts
that have been already softened by the Spirit will respond to the words of
Jesus, and they will be drawn to Him with cords of love. Stepping into the
water with one after another who seals their relationship with Jesus through
baptism, the evangelist is blessed to see once again the mighty love of God
bearing a harvest, and perhaps they are reminded of the time they also stepped
into the water and pledged their life to Jesus. Smiling, he may also realize
that some of these same souls will be carrying on the work of reaching others
in town after town even when the one who baptized them is no longer able to
continue.
God has always intended that His people should carry His
message of love to the world. But where hundreds and even thousands should be
doing so, only handfuls are enjoying the privilege and receiving the blessings
of outreach. Why is that? There may be several reasons. It may be related to
how we view ministry, how we view the church, and how we view the world.
Our perspective on ministry can be a hurdle to overcome
when we view evangelism as the minister’s work and as laity we are to remain
uninvolved. Some ordained ministers point the finger of blame for this at the
laity, claiming that they prefer to be indolent and not working in the “fields
of the Lord.” However, it is far more likely that the clergy are the primary
problem here. They have created a rigid hierarchy of authority and refuse to
recognize as valid any ordination except that bestowed by their own priestly
caste. Consequently they deny the right of laity to baptize, an idea that was
foreign to the apostolic church. Most profoundly we have evidence of that in
John the Baptist who received no authority from the priesthood for the baptisms
he performed.[i]
When the established clergy challenged Jesus’ authority to do what He did, He
pointed to John’s example. Perhaps it is time we did the same. While baptism
was a relatively simple public commitment in apostolic times,[ii] we find that now we must
submit to grilling over twenty-eight detailed beliefs[iii] before we are allowed
baptism. It is hard to picture Philip having the time to review such an
extensive document with the Ethiopian eunuch prior to his baptism by the
roadside.[iv] Maybe our overzealous
desire to only allow certain elements into the church is as though Jesus had
told Peter to clean the fish before he caught them. While common sense tells us
how silly that idea is, we seem to have trouble recognizing it when it comes to
“fishing for men.”[v]
Perhaps there is too much desire for men to control every aspect of the work,
leaving little room for the Holy Spirit to labor. Sadly, due to human greed,
this often becomes the case when money is involved, and when it comes to the
worldwide church, millions are at stake. Unfortunately, those funds, instead of
being used for the poor, both materially and spiritually,[vi] are used to fill the
pockets of the clerical overlords and build and maintain expensive edifices
designed to glorify the church here on earth instead of God in heaven. Maybe
this is in part why Jesus has not yet returned. We have created our reward
already here on earth, and what a pitiful reward it is.
This touches on how we view church. Instead of viewing
it as a vast movement of laity evangelizing the world, we see it as an
institution with a physical infrastructure that must be maintained at all
costs. As a result, we not only become more invested in perpetuating physical
power, but we raise up each generation after us to do the same. Decisions that
may be questionable theologically become justifiable because doing otherwise
might challenge the viability of some aspect of the institutional church.
Perhaps this over investiture in institutionalism came about because of
disengagement with mission. The Jews of Old Testament times became reclusive,
withdrawing from other nations and setting themselves apart and above everyone
else. Ignoring the needs of others, they took great pride in the institutions
and buildings that they created.[vii] When faced with this
pride by His disciples in the buildings constructed, Jesus reminded them of
their worthlessness in the face of what was coming. Do we realize how temporary
and ultimately worthless these things will be to us one day? When the Romans
conquered and looted Jerusalem in 70 CE, many of the Jews fled to the very
temple they had constructed, believing that God would somehow protect them from
the rapacious Romans. Those who did so perished in the flames of the temple’s
destruction. They failed to realize that their construction of a mighty edifice
to glorify God was really only an attempt to glorify them. Since our own works
have no power to save us,[viii] they perished. The
church of apostolic times was not buildings, not a hierarchical clergy, but
simple souls, ordained of the Holy Spirit, not man,[ix] and meeting in homes,[x] beside rivers[xi] and in public forums.[xii] We seem to have lost
sight of apostolic Christianity and chosen instead the state-approved model
that arose under Constantine where authoritarian structures, relying on the
support of the state, became the norm.
How we viewed the world began to change as well. Since
our views became allied with those of the state, as happened under the ancient
kings of Israel, we developed a more or less isolationist view. Those who were
of our theological perspective were “safe” as were those who shared our
nationalistic and xenophobic perspectives. Our desire to multiply creeds is
reflective of a defensive posture where we use those documents to weed out
those who might challenge the sanctity and safety of our institutional church.
This is a defensive castle paradigm where we hide ourselves from the
contamination of the world. In some cases, it has become so extreme that even
when we find those willing to commit to our detailed creed and manage to reach
actual baptism, we carefully monitor their behavior lest their commitment prove
to be less than genuine. If our fears in that regard are realized, we withdraw
from them spiritually and socially until they leave of their own accord. The
clergy who allow this are complicit in this poison parody of church. This is
because they have allowed it to perpetuate their own power over a church that
has departed from its first apostolic love in pursuit of earthly power. But
like ancient Israel that followed the same path, such a church has become
Ichabod,[xiii] for the glory has
departed and cannot return as long as the works of man are allowed to continue
to take precedence over the Holy Spirit. The Spirit calls whom He will and is
not dependent on ordination by some priestly class. He provides all the
ordination that is necessary. The ancient Israelites had to spend seventy years
in Babylon for their temerity. They relegated all spiritual and moral
responsibility to the priesthood. When that priesthood became corrupt they then
had little hope of reclaiming the compassionate morality they had relinquished.
I pray we have not chosen the same path. Woe to us if that is so.
